Frozen, refrigerated and shelf stable pie crusts and pastry doughs have been commercially available for a number of years. These products offer the consumer convenience in making a product. There are a number of formulations which are used to make the product flaky, tender, not too brown, easy to handle or shelf stable. However, each of these formulations has special requirements for mixing, processing, handling and storage.
Polyols, such as glycerine, have been added to pastry products for a number of reasons. These include: preventing the loss of water; lowering the water activity and thus increasing the bacterial stability of the product; depressing the freezing point of doughs; strengthening the dough and otherwise improving its handling characteristics.
Japanese patent 63-240,742 (1988) discloses a pie crust manufactured with polyols. The dough contains flour, both a "strong" and a "weak" flour, emulsified fat, water, glycerine and an additional "roll-in" or margarine fat. The dough is put together by a rolling and kneading process.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,535 issued to Norsby, et al., (1972) discloses a ready to bake pie crust which is shelf stable. The dough contains shortening, flour and water. A second dough of developed wheat gluten is prepared from wheat flour, water and 0% to 30% shortening. Glycerine can be added at a level of 7% to 10% in the flour and water dough.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,769,034 issued to Dreier, et al., (1973) discloses a dough composition having a dough moisture level of 18% to 26% and which is shelf stable for prolonged period of times. The dough contains flour, gelatinized and ungelatinized starches, shortening, water and a mold or yeast inhibitor. These doughs are stable under non-refrigerated storage conditions. From 0% to 3% of the plasticizer, propylene or glycerine can be added.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,611,704 issued to Jaeger (1952), discloses dry mixed products for making various baked goods. Examples 13 to 15 are for dry pie crust mixes. In Example 15 the shortening contains glycerol monopalmitate as a stabilizer, lard, locust bean gum, and glycerine as a humectant. The products containing glycerine are said to have less shrinkage than the products made without the glycerine.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,294,547 to Kooistra (1966), discloses a low moisture dough system for making pies which contains 40% to 55% flour, 10% to 25% water, 20% to 35% shortening and 1% to 15% glycerine. The ratio of glycerol to water ranges from 1:9 to 3:2. These products are said to have a stronger dough sheeting process.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,151 to Scharschmidt (1972) discloses a toaster pastry. The dough for the toaster pastry contains 9% to 25% fat, 4% to 16% sucrose, 45% to 60% flour and a moisture content of 10% to 25%. In a preferred embodiment the dough contains 1% to 10% of a humectant (glycerine), leavening, non-fat milk solids, yeast and salt.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,374,151 issued to Lindstrom, et al. (1983) discloses a frozen, leavened dough suitable for making baked products which thaws faster due to the presence of 5% to 20% of a melting point depressant. Glycerine is used as a melting point depressant.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,157 issued to Caporaso (1983) discloses a package system for fully baked unfilled pastry shells. This application suggests that the unfilled pastry shells have a moisture level of 4%, a substantially continuous surface, and from 2% to 5% glycerine which improves the physical strength of the product and maintains the flaky texture of the shell over extended periods of storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,625 issued to Durst (1984) discloses ready-to-eat pie crust which contains non-gelatinized starch and which are shelf stable for up to one year. The baked goods are prepared from a flour containing base batter mix, water and at least 5% by-weight of an edible polyhydric alcohol.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,585 issued to Durst (1985) is a related application. This patent claims the baked goods of the '625 patent. Both of these patents are primarily directed toward batter based products and bread, not pie doughs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,226 issued to Ke, et al. (1986) discloses ready-to-eat puff pastries that are produced by baking a multi-layered laminate comprising alternate layers of a dough and a roll-in shortening, wherein the flour of the dough is partially substituted with dextrin.
European Patent Application 85,557 issued to Warren, et al. (1983) discloses a fully baked shelf stable pastry shell having a moisture content of less than 4% and comprising on a dry weight basis 50% to 85% flour, 10% to 45% fat, glycerine in an amount up to 5% (which is effective to maintain the texture for extended storage of up to 6 months). This pie crust is made by creaming the shortening, blending the fat and flour for 6 minutes. Separately water, salt, coloring and glycerine are mixed and then blended with the flour and batter until a uniform wetted dough is prepared.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,151,987 issued to Colby (1964) describes a process for making a pastry dough in which a dough is prepared from flour and water. The flour is mixed with the water only until the water is absorbed and the flour has been wetted without significant gluten development. This flour water mixture is layered with a plastic shortening having a consistency of paste. Spry or Primex are recommended. Layers of the flour paste and shortening are alternated and then compressed to the desired thickness before baking.
French patent 2,602,398 issued to Petrizelli (1988) describes a storage stable preservative free pastry dough. The pastry dough contains inactivated cereal flour, starch, sugar, fat and glycerine as well as an emulsifier. The preferred emulsifier is lecithin or a mixture of fatty acid mono- and di-glycerides with lecithin. The inactivated flour has an alpha amylase activity of 0 and very reduced lipase and peroxidase activity. The starch is preferably a corn starch. This dough is used to make tarts or biscuits.
"The Effects of Polyols on the Functional Properties of Flour-filmed Food," Sun, et al., Journal of Chinese Agricultural Chemical Society, 17, 158-166 (1979), describes the effect of a polyol, in particular glycerine, on the theological properties of flour filmed foods. The polyol/flour/water mixtures had better rheological properties and palatability.
Japanese patent 63-322,642 (1988) describes a rolled pie dough by mixing emulsified fat, water and flour. The emulsified fat contains glycerine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,318 issued to Finkel (1989) discloses the use of liquid polyols in a butter and flour mixture which has an increased viscosity. This mixture is used in croissants and other pastry products as a replacement for shortening. The butter is said to remain in the dough during processing (it doesn't separate).
Sheeting of doughs and folding or laminating of two doughs is also known.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,467 issued to Pinto (1987) discloses an apparatus for making a flat sheet comprising a layer of fat sandwiched between two layers of dough. The sheet is produced by a co-extrusion die with a slot-like orifice. This material can be laminated, rolled and cut to form multi-layered bakery products.
Japanese 63-240742 (1988) states that a folding step for the dough followed by baking produces a pie with "light and voluminous texture".
U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,378 issued to Haasl, et al., (1981) describes a dough composition for making quality "thinly sheeted" pie crust which is shelf stable. The dough contains a high starch, low enzyme flour, shortening, gluten and preservatives. The dough is manufactured, pre-sheeted, folded twice before packaging.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,982 issued to Haasl, et al., (1983) is related to the '378 patent. This application claims the use of a vacuum treatment of the dough. The high starch, low enzyme flour mixture is said to prevent browning reactions during storage.
All of these processes have been used to solve one or more problems. However, it has now been found that a pastry dough which is stable on refrigerated or frozen storage can be made by layering two different phases, one containing flour, water, salt and shortening, the conventional pastry or pie crust ingredients, and a second phase which uses starch, and a fat, e.g., oil and/or shortening. Glycerine or a polyol can be added in either phase. These materials lower the water activity of the dough, thus making it more storage stable. The layering of these phases to make a heterogeneous dough produces a low fat, flaky pie crust on baking which absorbs less water and is not soggy. Both of these phases contain less fat than current commercial products.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to make a pie crust or pastry dough which has an increased flakiness and absorbs less water. The dough is stronger.
It is a further object of this invention to make a pastry crust which is low in fat and also low in saturated fats.
These and other objects will be evident from the description herein.
All percentages are by weight unless otherwise indicated.